The present invention relates to secure access systems and methods and more specifically to a system and method of securely delivering and verifying a mobile boarding pass.
Barcoded boarding pass (BCBP) is a standard used by airlines which defines a two-dimensional barcode printed on a boarding pass or sent to a mobile phone for electronic boarding passes. The barcode is encoded with boarding pass information defined by the standard, such as traveler name, flight number, and flight date and time. The standard accepts different symbologies for use by mobile phones, including Aztec code, Datamatrix, and QR code. Barcodes may be delivered to mobile phones using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), electronic mail (e-mail) or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Airlines, security organizations like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and possibly others use a barcode reader to read the two-dimensional barcodes and decode the barcodes to obtain and use the boarding pass information for security purposes, flight check-in, and possibly other uses.
The ability to capture and duplicate two-dimensional barcodes from paper or from a mobile device is a security risk for certain types of applications. It may be possible for an attacker to intercept a barcode and use it for fraudulent access, key-reverse-engineering, or other nefarious purposes.
For example, a two-dimensional barcode intercepted from a valid boarding pass may be used with a forged identification document, such as a forged driver's license, to pass through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint, at which a TSA representative checks the validity of the boarding pass and matches information from the boarding pass with information from the identification document.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method of securely delivering mobile boarding passes which overcomes these problems.